By ABBY GOODNOUGH; Benedict Carey contributed reporting from New York for this article, Christine Jordan Sexton from Tallahassee, Fla., and William Yardley from Pinellas Park.

Published: April 1, 2005

The long, sorrowful struggle over Terri Schiavo's life ended Thursday morning when she died in her hospice bed almost two weeks after the removal of her feeding tube, her parents and siblings absent, the husband they reviled at her side.

The enmity that defined the case over seven years persisted even in the final minutes before Ms. Schiavo's death, as her brother, Bobby Schindler, sought to stay at her bedside but her husband, Michael, told him to leave.

Her death, just after 9 a.m., brought a swell of emotion from the encampment outside the hospice, the state capital, the White House and even the Vatican.

In brief statements, Bobby Schindler and his sister, Suzanne Vitadamo, hinted at their anger toward Mr. Schiavo but mostly thanked supporters who had rallied around them for years.

''After these recent years of neglect at the hands of those who were supposed to protect and care for her,'' Ms. Vitadamo said of her sister, who was 41, ''she is finally at peace with God for eternity.''

Mr. Schiavo stayed out of sight, but his lawyer, George Felos, said he had cradled his wife as her breathing ceased and her limbs grew cold, while his older brother, his lawyers and some of the hospice workers who tended to Ms. Schiavo for years looked on.

''Mr. Schiavo's overriding concern here was to provide for Terri a peaceful death with dignity,'' Mr. Felos said in an afternoon news conference. ''This death was not for the siblings, and not for the spouse and not for the parents. This was for Terri.''

In recent weeks, the polarizing fight over Ms. Schiavo produced a wrenching national debate about the rights of incapacitated people and when their lives should end if they left no specific instructions.

It drew religious conservatives and abortion opponents who took up the Schindlers' cause, saying no life should end prematurely. And just as the case of Karen Ann Quinlan prompted a debate nearly 30 years ago over the ''right to die,'' the Schiavo case seemed to focus as much on the ''right to live.'' [Page A18.]

In Washington, where the case prompted an extraordinary effort by Congress to intervene, President Bush expressed sympathy ''to Terri Schiavo's families'' and called on the nation to ''build a culture of life, where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected.''

The Vatican issued a statement calling Ms. Schiavo's death a ''violation of the sacred nature of life'' that had ''shocked consciences.''

Pope John Paul II, whose own health is failing, said last year that providing food and water, even by artificial means, was ''moral and obligatory.''

Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, who had tried to intervene in the matter as recently as last week, said after learning of Ms. Schiavo's death that ''this issue transcends politics and policies.'' He also called her case ''the toughest issue'' in his tenure.

''Her experience will heighten awareness of the importance of families dealing with end-of-life issues, and that is an incredible legacy,'' the governor said.

Within hours of her death, Ms. Schiavo's body was transported to the Pinellas County medical examiner's office, where an autopsy is to be performed to determine her cause of death. A spokesman from that office said that the autopsy would be completed within 24 hours and the body released to Mr. Schiavo, but that a report on its conclusions might not be finished for several weeks.

Earlier this week, Mr. Felos said Mr. Schiavo wanted the autopsy so he could lay to rest longstanding rumors that he had abused his wife, perhaps even on the night of her collapse.

Mr. Felos also said that his client believed it would be ''important to have the public know the full and massive extent of the damage to Ms. Schiavo's brain'' to counteract accusations that she was cognizant, communicative and involuntarily starved to death.

Dr. Barbara Crain, director of the autopsy service at Johns Hopkins University's school of medicine, said in an interview that an autopsy alone would probably not determine a patient's mental condition with absolute certainty. But by examining sections of nerve cells and connective tissue, Dr. Crain said, pathologists could confirm a vegetative state.

Autopsies of people who die in a persistent vegetative state show extensive cell death throughout the cerebral cortex, the seat of consciousness, and this damage is almost always obvious in a post-mortem review, Dr. Crain said.

Mr. Schiavo, 41, plans to cremate his wife and bury her remains in his family plot outside Philadelphia, where both he and his wife grew up. Mr. Felos did not discuss specific burial plans, but friends of the Schindlers said they were planning a separate funeral service for Ms. Schiavo in Florida.

Mr. Felos described Ms. Schiavo's final night and morning, from her increasingly labored breathing to the soft music playing in her room to the vigil her husband kept beside her. Around 7 a.m., Mr. Felos said, Mr. Schiavo left the room so his wife's siblings could visit her with a priest, the Rev. Frank Pavone, who runs a national group called Priests for Life.